With the loss to Obama a reality, the Republicans have moved on from disappointment and despondency to blame.

The despondency was incredible, I heard accounts on the radio of people in tears over the loss.  Understandable, this was an emotional campaign.

(I am not at all despondent.  I am energized.  This is a fantastic time to be a blogger.  The next 4 years, or even 8 will be filled with an incredible opportunity to use the power of blogging to hold Obama accountable to his promises.  He promised the world, we must make him either deliever or admit to being a fraud. )

But whereas some of that grief is natural, and will fade in time, the blaming that has begun is pretty sick in its intensity and growing venom.  All along, the champion of the campaign was Sarah Palin with her charm, her genuineness, and her bright idealism. 

Now she is gradually becoming the official scapegoat.  We start at Michelle Malkin:

The McCain campaign’s classless cowards

The anonymous trashing of Sarah Palin by blabbermouth McCain aides who are leaking to Fox News is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

And here is a factoid for all those who claim Fox news is solidly in the tank for conservatives:  they are contributing to the Palin derangement.  Switching over to Hot air for a moment:

Via Ace, a tasty pile of shinola straight from the stovetop of disgruntled McCain staffers. It’s too cute by half, as is the detail about NAFTA; they might as well have tossed in a story about her having to guess who’s buried in Grant’s tomb. To believe it, you have to believe she figured out a way to become governor of Alaska while somehow lacking the mental power to piece together which three nations might be involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Diehard ‘Cuda-haters like Sullivan will, of course, be more than happy to oblige.

Videos at the Hot Air link.

And another round at this link:

Unlike the first clip, this one does corroborate some of the details in the Newsweek report — sort of. Newsweek claims Palin appeared to McCain’s aides in a bath towel; Cameron says it’s a bathrobe. It’s not clear if he’s lifting that story from the piece of if he got it from a source firsthand; if the latter, then there’s either one very determined person leaking to multiple news outlets or … it’s a full-court press.

Whichever it is, you’ll never hear the word “uncommon” uttered as pejoratively as you will here.

Michelle’s initial observation makes sense to me:

At least all the Hollywood and Manhattan Palin-haters were willing to sign their names and put their faces on their attacks.

Let’s assume the rumor-mongers are telling the truth for a moment. Who does it damn more: Sarah Palin or McCain and his vetters who green-lighted her for the vice presidential nomination? Don’t need an Ivy League degree to figure that one out.

Sarah Palin worked her heart out. She energized tens of thousands to come out who would have otherwise stayed home. She touched countless families. I didn’t agree with everything she said on the campaign trail. But two fundamental conservative stands she took mattered greatly to me: She vigorously defended the Second Amendment and the sanctity of life more eloquently in practice than any of the educated conservative aristocracy.

And she did it all with a tirelessness and infectious optimism that defied the shameless, bottomless attempts by elites in both parties to bring her and her family down.

Shame on the smearers who don’t have the balls to show their faces.

Very true. 

But the bigger problem to me is that this is unnecessary in every way.  If the best the Republicans can do right now is point fingers at Palin as the reason the lost, then that just proves they did not deserve to win in the first place.

Ace of Spades is a bit unhappy also:

Here’s a story these staffers tell: Sent to collect Palin from a hotel, she greeted them, straight from the shower (running late, I guess ) dressed (scandal!) only in a bathrobe (presumably a very thick hotel bathrobe).

These staffers called that “uncommon” — Cameron delighted in the word to give it the sound of “whorish, unprofessional.”

Heh, assholes? She had to open the door and had just gotten out of the shower. Did you want her to use her magical powers of telekinesis to open the door for you?

Palin however remains graceful in the face of the ugliness:

Responding to a question on whether she has any “hurt feelings,” Palin laughs cheerfully. “This is politics! Of course not. It’s rough and tumble and you’ve got to have a thick skin just like I’ve got.”

As I have said, her common sense and genuineness are her greatest strength.  She is the brightest light in the republican party, and they had better accept that.

Red State has an interesting project underway:

RedState is pleased to announce it is engaging in a special project: Operation Leper.

We’re tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.

We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you’ll see us go to war against those candidates.

It is our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.

I understand their anger and frustration and desire to do something.

I do however think that this is another mistake.  The finger pointing and name calling need to end, the party needs to heal and regain its direction and prepare for the comeback elections to come.

Or they can remains steeped in bitterness and let the Democrats continue whittling away the congress.

Michelle has a great “what do we do now” blog:

There is no time to lick wounds, point fingers, and wallow in post-election mud.

I’m getting a lot of moan-y, sad-face “What do we do now, Michelle?” e-mails.

What do we do now? We do what we’ve always done.

We stand up for our principles, as we always have — through Democrat administrations and Republican administrations, in bear markets or bull markets, in peacetime and wartime.

We stay positive and focused.

We keep the faith.

We do not apologize for our beliefs. We do not re-brand them, re-form them, or relinquish them. We defend them.

We pay respect to the office of the presidency. We count our blessings and recommit ourselves to our constitutional republic.

We gird our loins, to borrow a phrase from our Vice President-elect.

We lock and load our ideological ammunition.

We fight.

And Flopping Aces notes:

We have to get back to our principals…small government. Once we do we then attack the left…not like they attack the right which can be downright dishonorable. No, we attack them as we did in 1994. Because believe me, after two years of this socialist as President people will be looking for a way out. After two years of their hard earned income being confisicated by the state, they will be looking for a change. So keep your nose to the grindstone and keeping fighting. We got Sarah Palin out of McCain’s mess of a campaign, thats a start.

I close with this snippet, again from Hot Air:

Over the next four years, Republicans and conservatives have to work to rethink their approaches, find new leadership, and work to keep the worst excesses of the Democratic policy from becoming reality.  In 2010, we will have an opportunity to rebuild.  We need to do that through ideas, policies, and strong leadership, not by acting … well, like the Left did throughout much of the Bush years.

It’s time to get back to work.

I couldn’t agree more. 

Trackposted to Stop the ACLU, Sister Toldjah, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Shadowscope, DragonLady’s World, Cao’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Amboy Times, Democrat=Socialist, nn&v, Conservative Cat, nn7v, , Allie is Wired, Political Byline, Faultline USA, third world county, McCain Blogs, Woman Honor Thyself, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, , Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , CORSARI D’ITALIA, A Newt One, Stageleft, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.